Improvement in washing-machines



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'GEORGE L.l Wrsrt, or rn1tADELPH1A',-' PENNSYLVANIA.

i Letters Patent No. 110,181", dated December 1 3, 1870.

IMPFovEMENT IN 'WASHING-MACHINES.

The Schedule referred to in these Letters Patent and making part of the sante.

To all wlw-m may concern Be it known that I, Gnaen L. Wrrsir., of Phila` delphia, in the county of Philadelphia and in the State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Washing-Machines; and I do be washed and the water for washing them, the crank l for operating the machine, and a portion of the flexible diaphragmwhich restsupon the clothes while they are being washed.

Figurel2 is a central vertical section, showing the vessel in which the washing is done, the rollers for agitating the water, the flexible diaphragm with its weights, and the crank-for operating the rollers.'

Figure 3 is a top view, showing the means of securing the diaphragm in position with reference to the tub or vessel in whicleit is placed and with reference to the rollers.

Gon'esponding letters refer to corresponding parts inv the several figures This invention relates to that class of machines which is used inwashing or cleansing clothes; and

It consists in the employment of a tlexible weighted diaphragm, which rests upon the clothes while heilig cleansed, and in the combination of said diaphragm with the other parts of the machine, as will be more fully described hereinafter.

In machines of this type it is necessary that the articles to be cleansed should be held in contact with the washing-rollers, and, at the Sametime, that they should he kept below the surface of the water, in order that the motion imparted thereto may affect the entire mass by being caused to pass entirely through.

it, as a consequence of the motionimparted thereto 'by the agitating mechanism.

To secure this result I employ the weighted elastic' diaphragm. v .To enable those skilled in the art to construct and use my improved machine, I will proceed to describe it, with reference to the annexed drawing, in which- A refer-sto a tub or vessel, of any required diameter and height, having its lower head firmly fixed therein, so as to form awater-tight joint, while across its lupper end there is placed a cross-lever, A; the upper surface is tlush with the upper ends of the staves composing the vessel.

,This cross-lever is notched into the vessel and permanently secured thereon, so that it mayform a support for the inner 'edges of the two sections of the upperremovable head A2 A2 .torest upon, and at the same time form a support for' the upper end of'I th shaft to which the crank is attached. B B refer to conically-formed rollers, which are fixed to arms or spindles, which are aiiixed to the ver tical shaft B1, Vor which pass through it in such a manner as to give them a' horizontalA position and cause them to revolve thereon when the crank -is turned, and at the same time cause them to perform the' eut-ire circuit of the interior of the vessel, they beingncarly or quite in contact with the lower head.

This arrangement of the rollers insures a brisk agitation of the water, insuring its passage up through the material to be cleansed, and by combining with such rollers the ieXible weighted diaphragm, the np' -per strata of the clothing will receive the same action of or from the water as do the clothes more nearly in contact with the rollers. l

The boiling water being placed in the tub before the clothes or materials to be cleansedare placed therein, the rollers prevent them from touching the water until the machine is worked, therefore there is not the objection offered which has been common to most other machines in settling the. dirt or causing the clothes to assume a yellow or dingy color, by

placing them in boiling water, the cleansing in this case being done by the expansive power of hot suds,

which expand and pass through the texture of the clothes upon the movement of the rollers.

The rotary movement of the rollers is effected by means of the crank B2, which is placed upon the up-- non-corrosive met-al, which tits into a groove in the tub or vessel, its ends being held by a staple driven into such' tub, or it may be secured in other suitable manners.

rlhe central portion of the diaphragm O issecured to a block of wood which is attached to the .under side of the cross-bar Al, said block beingl so arrangedthat the shaft B1 passes through it.

To this block the diaphragm is secured by means of a gathering string, so as to prevent the water from passing above it at that point.

At a point about midway between the shaft B and the interior surface of vthis vessel there are aftixedto' hthe diaphragm weights,C2 C2, which may be made of wood or of non-corrosive metal, the office of which is to press the clothes downvupon the rollers when placed below the diaphragm, or, in other words, to prevent the expansion of the water cansed by converting it into suds from removing the clothes ont ot' the reach of the action of the rollers. j

To provide for the ready insertion and removal of the clothes to and from the space below the diaphragm aslot or slit is made, which is bound up with a string passing through eyelets, and which may thereby be closed. up, so as to prevent the passage of the water through that point. Y

Having thus described' my invention,

What I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Pat ent, is-

1. The elastic weighted diaphragm C, in combinaf Y 3; The combination of the block to which the4 center of the diaphragm is attached, the diaphragm C, the cross-bar A1, and the vertical shaft B1, substantiaily as shown and described.v

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in' the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

Witnesses:

C. F. CLAUSEN', A. RUPPERT.

GEO. L. WITSIL'. 

